All nursing graduates of West Negros College who passed the December 2005 Nursing License Examination were allowed to take their oaths and process their nursing licenses, WNC vice president Ernesto Arbolario told the DAILY STAR yesterday.

Documents obtained by the DAILY STAR showed there were 254 WNC nursing board passers who took their oaths at the Business Inn in Bacolod City and 181 in Iloilo City Wednesday and yesterday.

There were 65 WNC passers, most of them from Dumaguete and Cebu cities, who failed to attend the oathtaking administered by Board of Nursing member Remedios Fernandez in Bacolod City, records showed.

Arbolario said there were also WNC passers who had taken their oaths right after passing the December 2005 Nursing Board Exam, but were made to answer the charges filed against them by the BON.

What WNC had gone through for the past four months was a "noteworthy experience", Arbolario said, adding that they will try to improve their system to make sure that those who graduate will not encounter impediments in taking their board examination.

He said they will also conduct a closer assessment of the nursing curriculum and see to it that students comply with the requirements of the Commission on Higher Education and Professional Regulation Commission.

He said WNC is planning to have a mass ceremonial oathtaking and induction ceremony of the 476 WNC nursing board passers tentatively set next week.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zenaida Hilado, dean of the College of Nursing, yesterday said she will sit with the school registrar and her coordinators to put things in order to avoid the same case happening again in the future.

She said she believes that WNC is not the only school who has problems in subject overloading. She also said she hopes the PRC and CHED can sit down together and define their duties and delineation of functions so the school will not be caught in the middle and be compromised.*DMG

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